The Energon Pub

TF_JW wrote:With Paradron Medic, there have been multiple designs for the hands. Including regular 5MM openings which would be able to hold Quickslinger. If she can get those and if they make sense with her other accessories, that's always an option.

I'm presuming these are the "Combiner Hunters" hands? If so, my experience with them is that they don't do well at holding Arcee's original accessories.

Tranzilla wrote:On a side note, I would have liked a Squeezeplay from Beast Wars Quickstrike in translucent purple colors. Similar to this...

This would have been

AMAZING

shajaki wrote:

I love it when Josh Burcham does fan art for new Fun Pub toy reveals.

It's a pretty sick piece that's for sure.

Did anyone else instantly create the head cannon that this Pretender Shell was the birth of Optimus Primal? I did. Kinda the way Omega Supreme was given sentience from being just another Guardian.

shajaki wrote:

See now this. This is cool. Me likes a lot

Hellscream9999 wrote:

Tranzilla wrote:On a side note, I would have liked a Squeezeplay from Beast Wars Quickstrike in translucent purple colors. Similar to this...

This would have been

AMAZING

hey look my squeezeplay custom from awhile back

A new image of Double Pretender Optimus Prime:

https://twitter.com/The_TF_Club/status/697453259922006016



Back when the Double Pretender gorilla prototype started making its rounds in online Transformers fan groups, I wanted it soooo badly. Having gone through Beast Wars and "Trukk Not Munky", I was enamored by the idea that the Double Pretender could be a sort of "missing link" between Optimus Prime (one of the rumored characters the prototype was meant to represent) and Optimus Primal. All these years later the missing link is becoming a reality!!

grimlockprime108 wrote:

Hellscream9999 wrote:

Tranzilla wrote:On a side note, I would have liked a Squeezeplay from Beast Wars Quickstrike in translucent purple colors. Similar to this...

This would have been

AMAZING

hey look my squeezeplay custom from awhile back

That was one cool custom. A job well done.

TF_JW wrote:Back when the Double Pretender gorilla prototype started making its rounds in online Transformers fan groups, I wanted it soooo badly. Having gone through Beast Wars and "Trukk Not Munky", I was enamored by the idea that the Double Pretender could be a sort of "missing link" between Optimus Prime (one of the rumored characters the prototype was meant to represent) and Optimus Primal. All these years later the missing link is becoming a reality!!

That you were able to make this a reality must really make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside I bet

Hellscream9999 wrote:

TF_JW wrote:Back when the Double Pretender gorilla prototype started making its rounds in online Transformers fan groups, I wanted it soooo badly. Having gone through Beast Wars and "Trukk Not Munky", I was enamored by the idea that the Double Pretender could be a sort of "missing link" between Optimus Prime (one of the rumored characters the prototype was meant to represent) and Optimus Primal. All these years later the missing link is becoming a reality!!

That you were able to make this a reality must really make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside I bet

makes me feel warm and fuzzy. that is so cool and I love it

shajaki wrote:Did anyone else instantly create the head cannon that this Pretender Shell was the birth of Optimus Primal? I did. Kinda the way Omega Supreme was given sentience from being just another Guardian.

TF_JW wrote:Back when the Double Pretender gorilla prototype started making its rounds in online Transformers fan groups, I wanted it soooo badly. Having gone through Beast Wars and "Trukk Not Munky", I was enamored by the idea that the Double Pretender could be a sort of "missing link" between Optimus Prime (one of the rumored characters the prototype was meant to represent) and Optimus Primal. All these years later the missing link is becoming a reality!!

HAHA! Great minds eh?

TF_JW wrote:A new image of Double Pretender Optimus Prime:

https://twitter.com/The_TF_Club/status/697453259922006016

optimus_trukk_munky.jpg

Oh snap! The Optimus-looking component has yellow eyes!

If it weren't for the inclusion of Hi-Q, I'd so want this toy to be a version of Unicron Trilogy Optimus. I just look at this set and can't help but hear only Garry Chalk's voice coming out of it.

I posted this on another thread a while back.

Lucky Logician wrote:While we're on the subject of FunPub doing a Beast Wars theme this year for the 20th anniversary:

FunPub, you now own the mold of a monkey who can fit a truck inside it. If you want to make money hand over fist, PAINT HIM LIKE OPTIMUS PRIMAL! He would be both a trukk and a munky. And you can just paint the truck in the same colors. Or maybe even paint him a sweet cherry color like the Dodge Ram OP.

You have one job, FunPub. Don't mess this up.

All you had to do was paint the monkey black and the truck red. Super simple. That would've made me plenty happy.
But you went the extra mile instead. This thing looks AMAZING!

Well, I guess they listened and even one-upped you!

shajaki wrote:It's a pretty sick piece that's for sure.

Did anyone else instantly create the head cannon that this Pretender Shell was the birth of Optimus Primal? I did. Kinda the way Omega Supreme was given sentience from being just another Guardian.

I have the head canon that G2 Megatron is BW Megatron and that the original never reverted from being Galvatron. It's one of those retconny things that only works in hindsight (and doesn't apply to comic book continuity).

But you can see a lot of BW Megs starting with the G2 Megatron molds, including the purple face.

So my head canon is that there's an animated style universe where mad scientists Straxus and Jhiaxus surgically altered a young Predacon working for Cryotek. They disguised him as Megatron in an effort to incite the Decepticons into relaunching the war. And that Predacon became BW Megatron.

Meanwhile, Optimus and the Autobots got upgraded by Forestonite and Optimus became a Double Pretender.

Question (and please pardon my ignorance - tried to google it and failed)

Has the TFCC run redecos of their own products like the Double Pretenders before?

I thought it strange (and kinda unoriginal) for TFCC to take a page out of Hasbro's book and just rehash a toy like that....especially so soon after the Botcon toy's release.

Stuartmaximus wrote:hmmm dunno how i feel about Hi Q coming with THIS optimus instead of the Titan Wars Powermaster Prime!

Moral of the story: The club cares more about fans than Hasbro does.

G.B. Blackrock wrote:

Stuartmaximus wrote:hmmm dunno how i feel about Hi Q coming with THIS optimus instead of the Titan Wars Powermaster Prime!

Moral of the story: The club cares more about fans than Hasbro does.

TR Apex might still be considered to be a version of Hi-Q with a new name or something. Maybe Hasbro couldn't secure the "Hi-Q" name Trademark.

As for the TFSS Hi-Q toy, while it's named as such here in the magazine, we'll have to wait and see if it'll still have that name (or any name) when it gets released (recall how the TF/G.I. Joe Afterburner toy had its correct name in its earliest announcement materials but was ultimately released as "Afterbreaker" instead).

Sabrblade wrote:

G.B. Blackrock wrote:

Stuartmaximus wrote:hmmm dunno how i feel about Hi Q coming with THIS optimus instead of the Titan Wars Powermaster Prime!

Moral of the story: The club cares more about fans than Hasbro does.

TR Apex might still be considered to be a version of Hi-Q with a new name or something. Maybe Hasbro couldn't secure the "Hi-Q" name Trademark.

As for the TFSS Hi-Q toy, while it's named as such here in the magazine, we'll have to wait and see if it'll still have that name (or any name) when it gets released (recall how the TF/G.I. Joe Afterburner toy had its correct name in its earliest announcement materials but was ultimately released as "Afterbreaker" instead).

If FunPub can use it, Hasbro can. While you're not wrong that FunPub has had to change previous-announced intentions in the past, they would surely know by now, given Hasbro's release of information related to TR Prime. Hasbro demonstrated using the "Apex" name months ago, and would do so for (essentially) one of two reasons. 1) They couldn't get Hi-Q, which would mean that FunPub would already know *they* couldn't use it, or 2) because Hasbro thought that "Apex" would be able to move toys faster/better than "Hi-Q" for whatever reason.

I find 2) more likely, given how long we've known about the Apex name.

All I'm saying that Apex pretty much seems to still be Hi-Q but with a different name, and that the present magazine using the Hi-Q name to refer to the TFSS figure isn't a solid indicator that the final toy release will still have that name, so we'll just have to wait and see what name it'll have even though we savvy fans know who it's supposed to be regardless of what name it'll have.

G.B. Blackrock wrote:

Stuartmaximus wrote:hmmm dunno how i feel about Hi Q coming with THIS optimus instead of the Titan Wars Powermaster Prime!

Moral of the story: The club cares more about fans than Hasbro does.

That's quite silly, how on Earth is using a new name for such a trivial character showing a lack of care for the fans?

RevTibe wrote:

G.B. Blackrock wrote:

Stuartmaximus wrote:hmmm dunno how i feel about Hi Q coming with THIS optimus instead of the Titan Wars Powermaster Prime!

Moral of the story: The club cares more about fans than Hasbro does.

That's quite silly, how on Earth is using a new name for such a trivial character showing a lack of care for the fans?

That wink was intended to show I wasn't being completely serious....

G.B. Blackrock wrote:

RevTibe wrote:

G.B. Blackrock wrote:

Stuartmaximus wrote:hmmm dunno how i feel about Hi Q coming with THIS optimus instead of the Titan Wars Powermaster Prime!

Moral of the story: The club cares more about fans than Hasbro does.

That's quite silly, how on Earth is using a new name for such a trivial character showing a lack of care for the fans?

That wink was intended to show I wasn't being completely serious....

:P Ah, fair enough.

Kranix2k wrote:Question (and please pardon my ignorance - tried to google it and failed)

Has the TFCC run redecos of their own products like the Double Pretenders before?

I thought it strange (and kinda unoriginal) for TFCC to take a page out of Hasbro's book and just rehash a toy like that....especially so soon after the Botcon toy's release.

Indeed they have, since the beginning (the following redecoed figures all have Fun Pub-original tooling):

2005: BotCon Chromia and Flarup, BotCon Ironhide and Autobot Ratchet
2006: BotCon Axalon Cheetor and Unit 2 (Tigatron)
2007: BotCon Thrust's wings would be reused for TFSS Nacelle in 2015 (though, Nacelle would use the standard Seeker head/nosecone rather than the Conehead version)
2008: TCC Nightbeat and BotCon SG Nightbeat, BotCon SG Jazz and SG Ricochet
2009: BotCon Scourge and Sweeps
2010: BotCon G2 Breakdown would be redecoed into TFSS G1 Breakdown in 2013
2011: BotCon Breakdown and Sideswipe, BotCon Fisitron and Autotroopers
2012: TCC Runamuck and Over-Run
2013: TFSS Breakdown was a redeco of BotCon G2 Breakdown from 2010, BotCon Hoist and Autobot Electrons, BotCon Strika and Blastcharge Strika Drone, BotCon Skywarp and Thundercracker
2014: TCC Rampage and BotCon Pirate Hunter, TCC Rewind and Eject
2015: TCC Lio Convoy and Nova Prime and BotCon Galva Convoy, Nacelle uses BotCon Thrust's wings from 2007, BotCon Oilmaster's Pretender shell and 2017 TFSS Optimus Prime's Pretender shell
2016: TCC Ramjet and Skywarp